if gays go to hell, then so be it.

if holding her hand in a public space
brings snickers and nasty remarks
about how god is ashamed,
tell god i am ashamed of him.

if being authentic
costs me my ticket to heaven,
i didn’t want to take that train anyway.

if with satan is where i belong
for loving another woman,
then with satan i shall be.

i would rather love unapologetically
than follow those who have condemned me.

ten years ago,
she danced as i watched from the crowd.
her silk pants and gold earrings
shimmered as the sun’s ray hit
her tan skin and long, black hair.
light on her toes,
her body moved like water,
bending with the wind.

up close, the specks of glitter on her cheeks
framed her caramel eyes.
we climbed up stone mountains,
away from the city,
where her beauty blended in
with the stars of the night sky.

when our shields fall
and time runs out,
we have no choice
but to battle one another.
for days, our armies have trained,
our resources expended.
we’ve built our crystal walls up high
and our archer towers higher.
bombs and springs are scattered
across the village.
our goal: no one leaves unscathed.
the kings and queens lead the army.
our dragons soar with rage,
burning down everything in its path.
our troops race to claim our loot
and bring home to our clan
more trophies and more honor.

you’ve heard the saying,
“when it rains, it pours,”
but you never hear
how the storm ends,
or if it ever does.

you never hear
that for some, the puddle
doesn’t drain,
but accumulates
to be greater
than even the widest oceans.

you never hear
that what once was a small wave
kept pushing and pulling,
grew into high tides,
and never stopped
washing away the
joys of yesterday.

ok, boomer,
you fail to recognize how lucky you were
when you were our age.
you want us to believe the scale of your success
when in reality, it was luck.
it was cheap college tuition
and a booming job market.

ok, boomer,
you ruined our economy
when your business caused our drop in ’08.
you kept up your “more and more and more” attitude
until it overflowed and broke.
where does that leave us?

ok, boomer,
you continue to neglect climate change
that has been pressing on our world for ages.
your businesses burned ***** energy
and dumped pollutants into our streams
without recognizing the consequences
we would face.

ok, boomer,
you criticize our tech savvy generation
but you know how it has changed us for the better.
you tell us we’ve been blinded by the screens
and “if we weren’t on those **** phones so much,”
maybe we’d be successful.
our level of communication across the digital world
is better than yours ever was.

ok, boomer,
you insist the “good ole days” were gold
and society will never be the same
but as we change,
we accept our differences—hell, we embrace them.
your “good ole days” are defined
by racism, sexism, homophobia, and more.
you are stuck in the past.

ok, boomer,
times are changing.
keep up.

Looking in your eyes,
I say, one last time, “I love you,”
Knowing you’d still love me back,
For when the night falls, and
You retreat back to bed,
You will find
A letter with no filter,
A letter full of confession and “sin,”
A letter I crumble time and time again
And bury six feet under.
Will you accept me, I wonder,
For loving another woman?
Will you understand, I wonder,
That I have not changed?
Will you still love me, I wonder,
If you knew who I was?

for nearly two years
he has filled in the place of others
offering hugs and kisses
to those who need them

he lies still in times of chaos and peace
observing the scenes unfold.
he looks up with his dark, round eyes
begging for attention.

sometimes, i lie with him, glowing
at other times, streams fall
down my rosy cheeks and shaky lips
onto his soft, golden fur.

as i drift away into a slumber
my arms hold him tight
before dropping to my sides
and letting him go.

he bounces on the carpet
landing on his side
he waits through the night
until dawn comes again.